


Puppy love [UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED]

by greeneyedorca



Category: Free!
Genre: Animal Traits, Hybrid AU, M/M, Unfinished, children au, clean, dogboy!Makoto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 11:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19723075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeneyedorca/pseuds/greeneyedorca
Summary: In which the Nanase family take in a certain puppy boy.





	Puppy love [UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED]

**Author's Note:**

> This work currently has no plans of being finished. It was a collab with some friends and we've all pretty much lost interest in working on it and it's been sitting in my drive for 2 years. We agreed that even in it's unfinished state, we wanted to share the love that was put into it. It was more of a practice in creative writing and a fun little thing for us to do together, with no real story or plot in mind. Just something cute and fun to pass the time. That being said, I hope you enjoy what we did manage to put together.

The car ride to his yet unknown new home was silent, leaving a tension in the air that couldn’t be unnoticed by everyone, yet nobody seemed to mention it. The breeze coming in from the open passenger window was cold, adding to the discomfort of the long ride. He didn’t like that crisp chill, but he wouldn’t dare speak up about it, because he didn’t want to be the one to break the silence. Makoto looked nervously to the young boy in the seat next to him, who had been staring blankly out the of the other window. With dark hair and oceanic eyes, his gaze remained stoic and hard to read, which had only further alienated the pup from his new “family.”  
In an attempt to relieve some of his nervous feelings upon glancing at that boy, he reached over, out of everyone else’s line of sight, to gently tap the other boy’s arm. When he received no reaction, he started to wonder if he had tapped hard enough. He soon realised, however, that the other boy’s body had only slightly become more rigid. Did I make a mistake? Makoto wondered. Was I not supposed to do that? The puppy sank back into his seat and hung his head with further feelings of dejection. The sudden murmuring between the adults in the front seats pulled Makoto from his melancholic state as his soft canine ears perked up to hear their conversation a little better; not that he could help it much. His heightened sense of hearing allowed him to do this, though it wasn’t serving him much more use than normal human ears would have. The adults weren’t exactly whispering, though they weren’t loud either.  
“Do you have the appointment already scheduled?” A voice from the front seat questioned.   
“Tomorrow morning was their soonest availability,” the woman's voice returned softly. She turned from facing forward to glance at their family’s newest addition and give him a gentle smile.   
“Haruka will warm up eventually, I’m sure. It won’t be too long before he gets used to having a new puppy.” Haruka’s mother then turned to look at her ever-stoic son. He made eye contact only to acknowledge that she had spoken but said nothing in reply. Getting one of these “hybrids” was not something Haru had asked for or even given much thought, but with his parents increasing workload they felt he needed a companion. While he hadn’t opposed the idea, it wasn’t necessarily one he favored either, seeing as the pup would be almost entirely in his care, and quite frankly, that just seemed like too much effort.  
Makoto was sure that Haruka’s mother was simply trying to distract him from the previous conversation he had been listening to. The reassuring words did little to comfort him while his mind was still focused on the strange “appointment” that had been mentioned. All of the appointments he had up until this point had been at the shelter, standard well-being assessments, and typically were not very fun and somewhat intrusive; his only motivation to behave at all was the candy he was offered at the end. The pup did not know if these assessments that he had been signed up for would offer any incentive to co-operate at all, and considering his history with past appointments, he was not so certain that he was ready to find out. But having been fortunate to be adopted at all, he chose to pocket his concerns for now.   
The old van pulled up in the snow-covered driveway, and Makoto could now see his new home. It was a relatively modest house, with dull colors for the siding and windows only in a symmetrical placement. All of the curtains were pulled closed. Makoto had to wonder if anyone truly lived there.  
“Okay, we’re here!” The woman in the passenger seat exclaimed, opening her door before her husband could even turn the key out of the ignition. The doors swung open, letting the cold, dry wind rush into the vehicle, and Makoto now realized that his clothes-- one of two pairs of thin, donated outfits-- were far from suited to the winter environment. He didn’t complain, though, because he had seen some of the hybrids at the shelter dressed in even more damaged and flimsy clothing than he was. Having just been adopted, he felt he had no room to complain anyways with regards to trying to keep a good impression. Being returned to the shelter was not something he wanted, and keeping his best behavior seemed like the most reasonable way to stay out of there.   
Haru had climbed out of the vehicle as well and trudged through the snow towards the door without waiting for the hybrid. He didn’t really harbor any negative feelings towards the new addition, but in his typical fashion was too lost in his own mind to even pay much attention in the first place. Makoto followed to the door, purely focused on trying to keep up with his new owner. The black-haired boy hastened his pace when he got inside and went straight up to his room, though his parents called out to him to spend some time getting their new pet acquainted with his new home.  
As for Makoto, he didn’t know whether or not to follow Haru, so he timidly stepped over to the staircase, sitting at the bottom and looking up as if he expected Haru to return for him. After his mother called a few more times, Haru returned to the stairs with a sigh, only somewhat surprised to see the brunet waiting at the bottom. The two stared at each other for a moment, Haru keeping his stoic and unamused expression, and Makoto with his overly-friendly and eager demeanor, until the raven-haired boy finally broke the stare, indicating for the pup to come upstairs with him.   
It seemed that Makoto practically surged to life once he got the signal from Haru. Using the full potential of his inhumanly abundant energy, it was a good thing that Haru wasn’t trying to keep up with him, because he wouldn’t have been able to do it. Arriving up in Haru’s room, Makoto took in as much as he could, noticing how it was fairly organized and somewhat plain in decoration.   
“Your bed is over there,” Haru said, pointing to a foam mattress pad and some pillows and blankets in the corner of the room under the window.   
Makoto’s tail started to wag eagerly, feeling slightly more welcome from the preparations made for his arrival. He noted that his bed was far better than the thinned pillows and the insufficient blanket that he was given before he had been adopted.  
After roaming around over his own bed for a few minutes, Makoto decided that he’d try to become acquainted with the rest of his owner’s room. His first destination in that pursuit was his bed, which he noticed was even softer than his own. After curling up in a ball at the end of Haru’s bed, he glanced up at the black-haired boy with his puppy-dog eyes, only to receive a dull gaze in return. Yet, surprisingly, Haru didn’t tell him to get off of the bed, and instead Makoto got a distant pat on the head. His lips curled into a small and pleased grin with the interaction, seeing that it was the only indicator that Haru had shown thus far he was even remotely interested in Makoto or taking note of his presence.  
It wasn't necessarily that Haru didn’t “like” or “care” for the pup, rather that the sudden addition to the family seemed unwarranted. He had been completely content with just his mother and father and didn’t understand why they so desperately wanted him to have a companion. He didn’t quite feel lonely, leaving him to sort through emotions that he himself didn’t quite understand. He pushed away those thoughts, deciding that they’d be too inconvenient to figure out while managing the new creature that had settled down in his bedroom. As if instinctually driven, Haru made his way to the bathroom to lounge in the tub; at least water wouldn’t suddenly require his life to change.   
“I’ll be back,” the raven-haired male muttered flatly as he left. Makoto felt it would be rude to follow, and took this a signal to wait for his return.   
Makoto decided that while he waited for Haru’s return, he’d investigate this new room more. After a quick scan of the bedroom, his attention was caught on a bookshelf that rested tightly against the far wall. He plodded over to it and removed a book from the shelf. A book about dolphins? Makoto thought. He must really like them, huh? His mind, then his eyes, wandered to the dolphin posters on Haru’s wall, before returning his attention to the book in hand. The glossy pages within contained numerous vividly colored images of ocean scenes, with multitudes of dolphins scattered across the scenes, all seemingly happy. There were words up in the corners of each page, but having never been taught to read, he could really only enjoy the pictures. He noticed that the pictures were popping out from the page. Was this a thing that human children had access to?   
Makoto was impressed by the images that reached from the thick pages out to him. The storybooks that had been read to him and his friends in the breeding shelter had bright images but none had ever come to life quite like this. Some of the pages had little pull-tabs, and ever so carefully he tugged on one, making one of the paper dolphins seemingly jump across the page. His eyes lit up in sheer amazement, how was this possible from just paper?  
He heard a noise from outside Haru’s door (which was simply Haru’s mother collecting the laundry basket from the hallway), but Makoto thought Haru was on his way back. In a quick rush to avoid being caught poking around at the books, Makoto pushed the book back onto the shelf… except, he found himself second guessing the placement of the pop up book compared to the other books, so he pulled it out again. What if they’re supposed to be in a particular order? He wondered. He pushed the book haphazardly under the bed, but he still made sure that the pages didn’t fold or tear.  
He still didn’t take it out from under Haru’s bed even when the footsteps of Haru’s mother faded away into silence. The pup scanned the room for other things to investigate while trying to not be too invasive to his new owners privacy. Setting his sights on the desk, he padded over carefully and climbed up onto the chair. A large drawing pad occupied a majority of the desk surface and was covered in various doodles, mostly of ocean creatures. The drawings were way better than anything Makoto had ever done, even with his best efforts. All of his practice from the breeding shelter could never have prepared him to draw something even remotely as good as Haru’s work, but then again, Makoto had only been given the most basic of inexpensive supplies to work with, which was a far cry from Haru’s good pencils and high quality sketchpad paper. He gently flipped through to see if the other pages had been used as well, slightly saddened to find them blank. As Makoto flipped through the pieces of paper, his nail caught the edge of one of them, tearing it slightly. Panic flooded his mind at the tear. What if he was in trouble and they sent him back to the shelter for being so destructive? In desperation, he tried to soothe the paper back and make the tear as unnoticeable as possible, without much luck. Fat tears started welling up in the corners of his eyes; he didn’t want to be returned! He reached for the pencil case at the edge of the desk and set it on top of the torn area to try and cover up his crime and ran away from the desk to return to the bed and act as if nothing happened.   
Makoto’s heart was pounding fast and he couldn’t settle down into the bed. He felt terrible about what he had done, but he couldn’t let Haru know. Maybe Haru would find the tear and think that he had done it while working on a drawing by mistake. Yes, that would be the safest thing for the boy to assume.   
Makoto sat where he was for a moment, but unwelcome thoughts flooded into his mind. What if he would be returned because he hid his mistake? Was he making the wrong decision? Was he even correct in assuming that Haru wouldn’t suspect him? In a quick and desperate act, Makoto took the sketchpad from its spot and he bursted out of the room, bounding to the bathroom to confess his mistake to Haru, hoping that the pat on the head he had received earlier was an indication that he wouldn’t get in trouble for ripping the page, after all.   
“I’m sorry!” Makoto sobbed loudly as he hurtled through the door. Haru turned to face the other from the comfort of the tub with an expression of confusion.  
Makoto held up the sketchpad to show the minor rip to the page as if it had been the biggest offense in the history of the universe; something so unforgivable and unredeemable that surely he would be punished harshly. Haru smiled slightly, taking the other by surprise. His smile gave a feeling that it was something to be cherished as a rare sight beyond his typical stoic and flat demeanor.   
“It’s just paper, it’s not a big deal.”   
The weight in Makoto’s chest lifted at the other boy’s words. “A-are you sure?”  
“Yeah.” Haru shrugs.  
“But… it can’t be fixed…” Makoto stammered, his eyes still stinging with the onset of tears.  
“We have tape. Go ask Mom where it is.”  
Makoto wiped his eyes and grinned like the child he was, wagging his tail and bounding out of the room to look for Haru’s mother, where the tape and the solution to his problem would be. “Haru’s mom! Haru’s mom!” he called, hoping for the woman’s attention. “Do you have any tape?”  
Haru’s mother looked surprised, but she turned to dig through a drawer to look for some tape.


End file.
